CHAP. I. 



ROSCOMMON AND MERINO SHEEP. 



499 



Within recent years they have been imported in large numbers into 

 the mainland of Scotland, where they are fattened and yield excellent 

 mutton. 



The ISLE OF MAN possesses a breed tnat bear much resemblance to 

 the Welsh sheep. Some of them are horned, and others polled. 

 Their general colour is white, but many are grey, and a few are of 

 a peculiar brown colour, provincially termed Laughton. This is the 

 distinctive mark of the breed. A Laughton-coloured patch is found on 

 the back of the neck, or it occasionally spreads over the whole of the 

 animal. 



Fig. 129. Merino Ram. 



(At 7 years old, clipped 12 Ib. of long fine white wool.) 



Imported from Otago, New Zealand, in 1887, by Mr. L. A. Macpherson, Wyrley Grove, 



Pelsall, Staffs. 



In Ireland the chief native breed is the ROSCOMMON, which has been 

 greatly improved within the past twenty-five or thirty years by the 

 introduction of Leicester blood, and by careful selection. There was a 

 limited but good display of these sheep at the Windsor Show of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society in 1889. 



THE MERINO, in spite of its supremacy in Europe, as well as in America 

 and Australia, has entirely failed to establish a footing in Britain. 



These sheep (fig. 129) have horns somewhat large in size, curved or 

 spiral, the ewes, however, being generally hornless. The faces are 

 white ; the legs of the same colour, and rather long ; a portion of loose 

 skin depending from the neck ; the bone is fine, and the pelt fine and 

 clear. The wool is exceedingly fine, and weighs, upon an average, 



K K 2 



